Holy Hill (7/21) and Holy *&@# Thats a lot of driving

This was our last day of racing, and, honestly, we probably could have done without it. Oscar and Joey started the race which was shortened to 68 miles instead of 90 after the start was delayed. Oscar dropped out about half way through, after putting in a couple of good attacks, and Joey didn't have much of an impressive finish either. There were a couple big rollers on the course and we just never really felt good going over them.... or anywhere else on the course for that matter. It actually kind of felt like our brakes were rubbing the whole race (they weren't actually, but that's how sluggish we felt). At the finish Joey didn't really have room to sprint anywhere either because it just got so swarmed and crowded. He came across the line around 35th or 40th.

Joey's cousin, Logan Biggs,who is going to school in Milwaukee came to watch the race. He drove his motorcycle out to the course and then followed us home to hang out for a while. He salvaged the day when he invited us to go over to his girlfriend's loft to play some video games, eat, and just hang out for the night. Joey was really happy to spend some time with him.

On Tuesday morning we woke up at 4:30 am and started our 13 hour drive back to Kutztown. We thought leaving by 5 would at least get us through Chicago before the morning rush hour hit, but we had no such luck. Before we knew it we were rolling slow in traffic at like 6 am! The hold up wasn't too bad however, and as we made our way across the states we probably spent close to $30 on tolls on our 14 hour trek. Arriving in Kutztown that evening, it was nice to be back in that familiar house that we had called home for the first half of the summer.

On Wednesday, we spent much of the day packing up and planning how we're going to fit everything in the car for tomorrow's drive home. We packed up 2 TT bikes in a box, 5 wheels in another box, and some other random stuff to ship home since we won't have room in the car to carry everything (we had 2 cars to bring it all up here).

Wednesday morning, while Oscar and Thomas slept in longer than Joey had ever seen them, he went to get coffee and prepared pancakes for the 3 of them. Soon after we woke up, we got straight to work packing the Volvo. We had to ship 2 boxes of random stuff home (in addition to the TT bikes we sent to CA) so that we would have enough room in the car for everything, but it was still an incredibly tight squeeze. If it weren't for Thomas' master packing skills, there's no way everything would have fit. The car was absolutely stuffed to the brim (remember that we brought 2 cars up here in the first place, and the only difference now was that Jafer had already headed home with his bags).

Evanston (7/20/08)

For Sunday's criterium we headed back down to the Chicago area to the suburb of Evanston, IL. There was a huge showing for Sunday's race in both fans and riders. Evanston had one of the largest field of the series; add a couple tight turns to the mix with nearly a dozen poorly situated man-hole covers that made for a pretty sketchy race.

The race was stopped twice because of bad crashes (situations where the rider(s) does not get up right away and then nobody wants him to move until the ambulance gets there...so he just lays in the street); the first time we stopped for 15-20 min with 16 laps to go, which was fine with Joey because he had just gotten caught from going off the front trying (unsuccessfully) to get a prime, so it allowed him time to recover.

When that crash happened, with 17 to go, Oscar was on Joey's wheel who was on the wheel of the guy that wrecked. Basically, the rider took the corner too wide and might have been blinded by the bright setting sun and ended up running into the outside curb/barrier. That sent his bike flying up and back out onto the road right in front of Joey! Joey ducked to avoid him and swerved to avoid the back half of his bike which was at eye level in front of him with both Oscar and Joey escaping alive.

The second stoppage of the race occurred after a wreck with 5 or 6 laps to go. After a long 20 min intermission we were back on the road and they had bumped the lap counter up to 10 laps to go, so they would have time to finish handing out primes. Joey was feeling really good in the closing laps and was able to fight and maintain his position near the front. He passed a few people in the sprint but not as many as he would have liked to. The next day, when we looked at results, Joey was not listed..... maybe because he finished on the opposite side of the road that the camera was on and possibly blocked by other riders. Unfortunately, most of the checks had already been handed out and there wasn't much we could do about the mishap.

Thomas was feeling pretty worn out from all the racing and didn't finish Evanston, and Oscar was in good form towards the end but just never really made it up to the front to contest the sprint or attack.

Rippin in Ripon, WI

With a big pancake/waffle lunch sitting heavy in our stomachs, we piled into the car a little after 3 pm and headed to the town of Ripon, WI for Friday's race. We knew we had 80-something miles ahead of us to get to the race and had planned to leave at 2:30, but the lunch Joey prepared ran a little longer than expected...but no biggie, we'd still arrive like an hour and a half before our 6 pm start time (we thought).

So around 3:45, while we were on the road, Oscar picks up this piece of paper in the back seat, looks at it for a minute, looks up at us and goes, "You know the race starts at 4:45 right?" In the front seat, all Thomas and Joey could say was "uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh." We looked at our directions and an atlas and figured we still had around 50 miles to go....and about an hour before the race starts, "Well, we're almost half way there, lets just try to make it." Instead of driving 60 mph and stopping to get coffee as Joey had requested, we started pushing the speed limit a bit and the only stop we made was when we pulled over for 30 seconds because Oscar swore he was about to pee all over the back seat.

We got to Ripon at exactly 4:45 expecting hear the starters gun unload, as soon as we pulled up, but luckily the women's race was still in progress. We've never been happier to see a race running late. Oscar decided to take the day off, so he ran over to registration to check in and pick up wrist bands for Thomas and Joey, as they whipped on their clothes, pumped tires, mixed drinks and made it to the start line in about 15 min. The course had hills on 3 of the 4 straightaways so it was terribly hard to start the race with no warm up. Actually, it was worse than terrible; I immediately started doing Oscars famously funny "pain cave dance," but this time it was no joke.

The first 45 min was the most Joey has ever struggled in the early going of a race. First of all, he started at the back of the group which meant there was a huge acceleration out of each corner and up the hills. His stomach cramped almost immediately simply because he'd just finished stuffing his face with waffles just 2 hours prior to the start, and in addition, his legs felt pretty stiff and not "opened up" from taking that rest day the day before. Totally out of breath and suffering, he started taking the corners really sloppily, and that only added to the pain inflicted by having to sprint out of the corners even harder. Other riders that he had been so much better than in previous stages were coming flying by him on the hills and he was doing all he could just to hold on to the back, sitting almost last wheel. Only 2 laps into the race he was ready to slam on the brakes, drop out, and head home. A thousand things started swarming through Joey's head "I'll probably feel better tomorrow, I don't have to finish today," "why am I doing this to myself?" "what's wrong with me!?!" He thought he couldn't finish the race, so now it was just a question of how long he wanted to torture himself.

It usually takes us a while into a race to warm up, but we never thought we'd pull out of this one. Then, between like 70 and 65 laps to go (it was a 100 lap race) we just started feeling better and better with every lap and our attitude changed. It came as somewhat of a surprise and relief to us when we finally got the feeling that we were going to be able to make it. Instead of dancing with pain, we started dancing with ease up the hills each lap. Then, with 20 laps to go, it started raining..... 3 of the 4 corners of the course were downhill and fast. The race had already blown apart with only about 30 riders remaining; as soon as it started raining, riders started dropping like flies. Not "getting dropped" but sliding out and falling almost every lap. Most of these guys got back in however, and by the finish it seemed like about half the field show cased bloody, skinned up hips. Joey is pleased to say that he went yet another day retaining all his skin.

While making sure to take the corners carefully was a good thing in the closing, rainy laps of the race, it hurt a little bit on the very last lap (by then the roads were nearly dry again). Joey was feeling decent and if he hadn't been a little too cautious around a couple of the last turns, he would have been able to jump past a few people on the hills, but didn't. He pretty much just held position on the last lap and was able to keep anyone from passing him in the sprint. He ended up placing around 15th in the bunch.

Sure Would Be Nice (Shorewood)

Thursday morning Oscar, Thomas and Joey loaded up the Volvo and headed North to Milwaukee where the second week of Super "Week" was to take place. Jafer departed the night before to spend a couple days in downtown Chicago with his cousin and then a couple more on a farm with his grandparents and uncles. We won't see him again until we get back to Atlanta (we're gonna be back sometime in the last few days of July), so he gets to skip out on the 25 hours of driving we have to get from here to Kutztown and then back to Atlanta......lucky!

After settling in a bit at our new host house, about 2 hours from Chicago, we headed down the road to Shorewood for the kiddies to race (Joey decided to take the day off). Joey almost got swept up and convinced to race by just being around all the race hub bub, but he thought better of it and decided to stick to the plan and take a rest day. Instead, he took off for a nice easy spin along the coast of Lake Michigan, mouth agape at how incredibly huge some of the lake front mansions were. I'm not sure how people can afford such huge houses on such pricey land, but it must nice to live on the water like that.

After riding Joey returned to the course just as the boys' race was starting and, after occupying a Starbucks bathroom for too long to fill up bottles and a jug, headed around to the backside of the course to feed Oscar and Thomas. There was a huge field, and they were absolutely flying and super strung out each time they came through. After being helped to the front by the OC with about 3 laps to go, Thomas was sitting in a really good spot with 1 lap to go but said some really sketchy stuff happened on the last lap. Both boys rolled across the line outside of the top 30. With Kelly Benefits on the front chasing a break down for the entire race, it looked like a pretty unrelentingly fast race.

The road ahead....(and behind)

Today the team heads to Milwaukee, WI for the Humboldt Park crit without Jafer, as he is taking the week off to visit family in the Chicago area and will return to racing at the Gwinnett Bike Fest on July 24th in Georgia. Stay tuned in for results and race reports from the rest of the Super Week Pro Tour.


Jafer and Joey would also like to thank the Joslyn family for their generous hospitality and support for the past week. Without host homes, many teams couldn't afford to race Super Week or any multiday stage race, so if you have a race in your area consider hosting a team. Thanks again.


Below are 2 galleries from Bensenville. If you like any of the pictures feel free to email me and I will send you the original file or you can take them from the web but please credit the source. Thanks, Team Kudzu.com

Day one




Day two

Bensenville Power Files

Bensenville Day 1. Raw data graph.

Graph has been smoothed to show averages.


Table of the power file.


Bensenville Day 2 showing speed and heart rate for the first hour.

Bensenville Double

On Tuesday and Wednesday we raced in Bensenville, IL on a rather peculiar course that saw the field shred on both accounts. Thomas decided to take the day off for the first race and Oscar took the day off for the second day in Bensenville. The slightest gap on this course could spell disaster, as the pace stayed high on the long straights and especially out of the turns.
On day one, an 8 man break tore off the front early in the race eventually lapping the field. Oscar and Joey sensed that another break was inevitable as they both stayed near the front, ready to pounce if given the chance. After Joey made a few attempts to escape, Oscar countered bridging up the road solo to small group of four riders. Their gap steadily grew over the peloton as the earlier break caught and lapped the field causing the pace to back off as they now desperately tried to lap the peloton as well.
Meanwhile, Joey rode smart and stayed out of trouble in the field saving energy for the next day. Another break of about 7 riders eventually broke out of the peloton, in hot pursuit of Oscar's group catching them with less than 10 laps to go. Oscar rode a great race eventually finishing in 19th, on a very fast sprint to the line that saw Rock Racing's Rahsaan Bahati take the win but loose the sprint jersey to Jittery Joes.

The second day was even faster as Rock Racing received reinforcements with a plan to dominate the field and take back the sprint jersey from Jittery Joes. It started off hard but got even faster as the peloton stretched single file, snaking across the course. Gaps began opening everywhere as riders pulled out of the race unable to hold the pace any further. When a rider in front of you pulls off at 30 mph it makes it very difficult to close the gap, thus it usually means you are in a spot of bother. You chase for laps at a time and by the time you regain contact you watch as the gap reopens because another rider pulled out! This happened to both Thomas and Jafer within the first hour of the race as countless riders withdrew from the race. The race was drastically reduced with more than a third of the field on the side of the road less than an hour in and even less riders remained in the finish.

Once again Joey rode at the front conserving energy and staying attentive for any breaks. Amazingly, one Columbian national team rider on his way to the Beijing Olympics soloed off the front of the race and was slowly reeled in by the field. One of his teammates was patiently waiting in the pack for the catch as he shot out of the field with about 25 laps to go holding it to the line! He almost lapped the field solo winning by about 40 seconds (more than half a lap). Joey was swarmed on the last lap as the sprinters started setting up for second place and held strong with a 28th place.

Richton Park Blitzkrieg

Another great day of racing in Chicagoland, as the temperature was mild and the pace was hot for another 100k of bike racing. A few new faces showed up to the race including a few Team Type 1, Texas Roadhouse,Locos, and the return of the Kelly Benefits riders. Rock Racing was still in control of the race, as they had both the red (sprint)and yellow (overall leader) jerseys sitting on the shoulders of Rahsaan Bahati and Sterling Magnell, respectively.

The race started off faster than a blitzkrieg,as we averaged 412 watts for the first 15 minutes. After settling into a steady rhythm we began to become more comfortable in the peloton as we acclimated to the course. Unfortunately, Oscar suffered from a flat tire and he was questioning his gear, as a mysterious creak appeared before the race. The pace is so high that there is no room to question yourself or your equipment because once you start second guessing things, your race is nearly over. Just backing off a fraction in the corners can spell disaster as the small gap quickly multiplies in the straights. After a few laps of yo-yoing even the best riders can suffer defeat. He was not able to shake his worries and consequently had to pull out of the race, the last thing he wanted to do.

Before the race Jafer had to visit the Sram service pit a consequent of yesterday's slid out. He didn't know it but the rider that fell into him had severely torqued his rear wheel and it took about 10 minutes to true the wheel. When he got back to the car he put on a new Panaracer Stradius Extreme tire and tube on the rear. It is truly amazing what a difference a new tire can make in the corners! Instead of sliding out, he regained total confidence in his cornering abilities. For most of the race Thomas and Jafer rode near each other towards the back end of the field while Joey was very attentive at the front. Jafer kept trying to move up as he felt really good but everytime he tried the pack seemed to swarm, preventing him from advancing. Finally, he had a chance to get up to the front when the field was single file and hoped to try and get in a break. He made a few hard pulls/attacks hoping that he could get a gap with a few riders to no avail. After his daring effort he quickly suffered the consequences as the pace drastically picked up a few moments later as the field was reeling in a serious breakaway. After a few laps of floating back, he found himself at the tail end of the field in danger of getting caught behind gapped riders. With 25 laps to go he became gapped after the riders in front pulled the plug on their race but he continued to chase eventually pulling out with 20 laps to go.

Meanwhile, Thomas was making his way towards the front where Joey was actively covering moves. An 8 man break went up the road eventually lapping the field before the closing laps. The pace once again picked up in the last 3 laps as the teams were starting to setup for the win. Thomas and Joey seemed to be holding good position but in the final sprint became caught behind other riders, finishing slightly out of the top 30.

The first 15 minutes of the race:

The race until I dropped out. Notice the large peak towards the end and then drop in power, thats where I got in trouble!

Power tap ridden by Jafer

FLAT Out in Olympia Park

How do we even begin to describe yesterdays race? For starters, it was probably the world's shortest crit course measuring about 0.45 of a mile, well shorter than the posted course of 0.6 of a mile. Picture a small neighborhood construction zone complete with piles of building supplies stacked inches from the course, unprotected (no padding) street signs and fire hydrants, and an unfinished road with curbs on both sides that sat nearly 2 inches higher than the road (try hitting the lip at 30mph, not pretty). Now you can begin to understand the dilemma we faced as we debated if we should even race.

The race organizers held a riders meeting discussing various options with a very ambiguous tone, as no one seemed to agree. Our options were laid bare before us: 1) Have two heats, 2)Have one race and anybody that didn't want to race could get a full refund, 3)Split the race into Pro/1 and 2 heats, 4) Cancel the race and go home. We were in full support with a pro/1 and 2 heat and we thought we had enough backing but it was quickly vetoed after much debate with the majority of votes gravitating to option 2.

Why such a big ruckus? With over 100 riders on such a short precarious course, the danger of crashing increased almost exponentially as the field would stretch over most of the course when single file. After much debate within the team we decided to start the race which was shortened to 80 laps, while many riders played it safe and went home. As expected the race started off fast as everyone was nervous and wanted to try to lap the field in a break. The race was one big undulation after undulation as some riders would break off keeping the pace high and then slowing when they were caught. The most dangerous part of the course was leading into turn 3 which had a strong tail-wind keeping the speed high throughout the turn as everyone leaned hard into the sharpest bend of the course.

Keep in mind what the thought of hitting the lip of the curb can do to the pack, as everyone was nervous about crashing. Countless wrecks occurred here as everyone battled for the wheel in front, only to run out of real estate. It was in this turn that Jafer nearly wiped out as he leaned hard into the turn carrying a little too much speed. Luckily, as he began his slid, he clipped his pedal on the road pushing him into the rider behind of him who provided enough support as he bounced off of him, regaining control of his bike. Unfortunately, the rider he hit went down hard but was not injured badly and rejoined the race. Less than a minute later Jafer's rear tire blew out with a loud bang in turn two causing him to head to the Sram service pit, where he received a new rear wheel and rejoined the race the following lap. Earlier in the race Joey had to make a visit to the pit as he suffered a rear flat while Thomas had his own race mishap, spending more than a few laps in the pit.

With 16 laps to go, the race was neutralized as a Virgin Blue (Aussie team) rider hit the ground HARD in turn 3, forcing the officials to make the call. With no ambulance on site the race was on pause for at least 15 minutes, waiting for the ambulance to arrive and transport the rider to the hospital (no word on his condition yet). Not sure how many riders went down during the race but we saw at least four wrecks all in turn 3. The race finally restarted but the pace didn't fully return as there was a 4 man break more than half a lap ahead (the break happened before the race was neutralized so they were allowed the same time gap during the restart). Thomas once again showed his crit riding prowess placing about 10th in the field sprint, followed by Joey inside the top 25, with Oscar and Jafer midpackish.

Olympia Park Crit Powertap Files

This graph has not been scaled and shows all the data points.
Max power= 1039 watts / Average Power with no zeros= 361 Watts
Max Heart-rate= 190 bpm / Average Heart-rate= 175 bpm
Max Speed= 36 mph / Average Speed= 26.6 mph

This graph is scaled down to give a better idea of the average power output.

Powertap ridden by Jafer. Jafer suffered a rear flat 45 mins into the race, thus changing to a non-powertap wheel.

Blue Island Graph

This is an excel file from my powertap from yesterdays race. It shows the speed for the race. Max speed was about 35 mph and average was 28.5 mph. I did not contest the sprint which is obvious by the graph. I did not use my powertap wheel because my race wheel is much lighter. I might ride the powertap wheel soon. Since there are no big teams here the pace fell in the final few laps which makes it much more dangerous. As the peleton bunches up the likely hood of clipping wheels increases!

Off to a fast start

Tonights course was a perfect start to kick off our campaign for the next couple of weeks, as it was FAST but not hard. The course had two very long straights, about 6 blocks long while the corners were only a block. The hardest part of the race was dodging the countless holes, cracked pavement, sewer grates, and road grime. As we expected the straights kept us at a constant 30-32 mph, while it slowed a bit in the four corners. That was probably the fastest 62 miles this year, as we did each lap in about 2 minutes, with the total race time around 2 hours. Our average was 28.5 mph but since the course was wide it made it easy to sit in and coast along, even when the field was single file front to back. Joey and Thomas led our team finishing somewhere around the top 25 riders while Jafer and Oscar were about mid-pack. In the final 3 laps the field was pretty sketchy as it stretched more than 15 wide through the corners when only about 10 riders should have gone through. After the race Jafer talked to and even posed with some very nice spectators that came out to watch the race; they even cheered for the team during the race. Thanks for the support, hopefully we will see you at the next few races!

After the race we headed to Walgreens for a few cold drinks. Oscar got some weird strawberry kiwi drink that he didn't like, Thomas got an orange flavored drink that had 29 grams of carbs per 8oz (very respectable post-race drink), Jafer got a liter of real orange juice (26 grams of carbs per 8oz), and Joey got the Tiger edition Gatorade with a meager 14 grams of carbs per 8oz. Then we headed across the street for some awesome double wrapped burritos from Chipotle then back to our respective hosts homes for some much needed showers!

Ready or not...stage 2 begins today

Even though Thomas and Oscar did a great job driving, we didn't manage to beat Google's estimated time of 11.5 hours (even though we did technically gain an hour when we moved time zones). Our travel time included the 3 gas stops and food stop we made, along with the countless toll stops, so our actual travel time was less than 11 hours for the 700 something miles.

We arrived around 6 pm to our new temporary home in the Chicago area, where Joey was waiting for us. He had the luxury of a relatively short plane ride from Atlanta, as he was returning from his college orientation (he flew home from Boston last week after we finished Fitchburg). We actually have two host homes, Jafer and Joey are together and Thomas and Oscar are a few blocks down the road in another host home. We would like to thank them for their generosity and hospitality! After becoming acquainted with the hosts, we headed out and rode to stage 1 in Beverly Hills, where we watched a few laps. Then we headed on to scoop out today's race course in Blue Island, a very flat and open course. We expect a constant speed in the 30s for the course, as the corners are very open and shouldn't cause a bunch-up.

After the ride we headed out to a great Italian restaurant with Jafer and Joey's host family. Thomas even challenged our host's son to an eat off but was out gunned and resorted to a to go box. Once dinner was over we headed to the grocery store so we can prepare the rest of our meals. We got the essentials like last time nothing that special. Luckily, there is an Xbox 360 in the basement where Jafer and Joey are staying to keep them entertained all night long, as they take turns playing Grand Theft Auto 4.

CHI Town Bound

Tomorrow (its actually only a handful of hours from now) at 6am we head to Blue Island, Illinois, to our new temporary host home. We begin racing on Saturday at the International Cycling Classic known as Superweek, but it should be more like Superweeks. We expect some fast racing but hopefully after completing the USA Crits Speed Week it should be a walk in the park! Google says it should take about 11.5 hours, but with Thomas behind the wheel anything is possible! Hopefully, we will be entertained by another great book on tape, can't wait!

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