At the beginning of June, track racing season started here in Colorado. The first Thursday night went well, with a pair of top-3 finishes. The following Tuesday, I was back to the track for more racing, knowing I would miss out on the 2nd Thursday night.
On the morning of Wednesday, the 8th, Aaron Trent and I loaded up my car, and set off to drive from Boulder to Indianola, IA. On Thursday, we visited with my grandparents and went for a road ride on some flooded bike paths between Indianola and Carlisle, IA.
Then on Friday morning, we packed up the car again and drove north in I-35 to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for the 2011 Fixed Gear Classic at the National Sports Center Velodrome in Blaine, MN. Racing began on Friday evening, with the keirin and scratch race for the men. My legs did not respond well to the driving on Wednesday and Friday morning, so I was relieved to have a rain delay that pushed the remaining races from the session to Saturday morning.
It turned out my legs did not really begin to come around until Saturday afternoon, so the keirin, scratch, and sprint qualifier rides were a bust for me. The sprinters who did not make the top-8 were given another ride, a 1-mile scratch race, to sort out 9th and lower places. I went into the short scratch race with a solid plan, and was able to ride away from the other competitors. My legs were back!
The endurance side of the program included a points race on Saturday afternoon. I qualified comfortably in the heats, and then put myself on the scoreboard with an early attack in the final.
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| After the rain delay on Friday night, we were treated to nice weather and fast racing for the remainder of the weekend. |
On Sunday, we raced two Madisons, a tempo race, and a handicap race. The handicap did not go very well, and the Madisons were an exercise in torture, but the tempo race was arguably the highlight of my weekend with a powerful move to bridge to the lead group and then late attack where I broke away from the remaining field and finished clear of everyone, accumulating enough points for 7th place.
On Monday morning, Aaron and I packed up the car again and drove north-west on I-94 from Minneapolis to Fargo, ND. My grandmother had a list of maintenance tasks around the house, which we were able to (mostly; a part for repairing my grandfather's grandfather clock is on order) complete by mid-day Tuesday.
We took in a taste of local color, going to the saloon in Abercrombie, ND for dinner on Monday night and then to the Sons of Norway lodge in Fargo for Tuesday lunch.
On Wednesday, we packed up the car again and in one long haul, drove from Fargo all the way to Boulder to conclude a week-long whirlwind racing tour of the mid-west.
On Thursday, the 16th, we drove back to Colorado Springs for more racing at the velodrome. Aaron and I teamed up for Aaron's first official Madison race, marking a milestone in Aaron's development from paralympic time trial racer to all-around track racer. Good stuff!
My aunt and uncle from Texas made it to the velodrome on Thursday night, so after the race we went for dinner, and then Friday morning we embarked on a weekend tour of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Friday saw us visit some of the Colorado Springs area tourist attractions that I had never visited, despite living in Colorado Springs for three years. We drove to the top of Pikes Peak, visited the Miramont Castle museum in Manitou Springs, and took the official visitor tour at the US Olympic Training Center.
Then on Saturday, we headed south past Fort Carson and made our way to the Royal Gorge, where we rode the incline railroad, the gondola, the skycoaster, and walked over the highest suspension bridge.
After leaving the Royal Gorge, we drove through Salida and Buena Vista on the way to Leadville, the highest town in Colorado. Then on Sunday morning we drove from Leadville over Independence Pass to Aspen, walked around there in the morning, ate lunch at a restaurant in Glenwood Springs, took in the sights while driving I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, stopped in Vail for a short walk-around, detoured through Breckenridge, and then made our way back to the front range and ended the day in Boulder.
After nearly two weeks away from home, I had a day to take care of logistics, and then turned around on Tuesday morning, the 21st, and made my way to Augusta, GA for paralympic road racing nationals.
Kevin, who I trained with in Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend, and I teamed up to ride the tandem time trial and road race events at nationals. We wound up finishing 2nd to the defending national champions, Dave and Clark, in both races. This was a good learning experience about tandem racing, and boosted my motivation to build strength on the bike and refine my technique to become a better tandem pilot.
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| The road race podium at paralympic nationals; Dave and Clark (1st place) are marked men with a couple of up-and-coming rookies looking to raise the level of American tandem racing. |
For now, I'm back in Boulder, but already beginning to plot my next adventure.
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