Pioneers in the Park

El Guapo (blue shoes/6th bike) in the fast lane! Click on pix to enlarge

Crit fever for Jono and Ben as they prepare for Cat 5 launch

It was all smiles before and after the strenuous crit/grand prix at Pioneer's Park in Lincoln Sunday. First time critter Ben (and I think Jono's 1st also) was giddy with excitement about competing in this crit. Tried to think of clever, experienced things to coach Ben with, but the last words out of my mouth were "don't cross wheels with anyone." Racing in those tight turns and all the jostling associated with crits leads to crashing.

My race consisted of 18 racers. The 40+, 50+, and 60+ riders may be long in the tooth, but they still pack lots of punch. I tried for the first prime, but got dusted by Shim on the way up the big hill. It took me a lap or two to recover, then I rode up front till the end of the race. I marked a 50+ Cat 2 rider from Kansas as my man to watch. Turns out it was some other old fox from Canada that ended up beating me to the line by 3 seconds. 2nd place. 1st loser. At least I beat some mercenaries from KC, Kansas, and Iowa. But not that doggone Frenchie from Canada.

I did reap a grand $15 for my efforts. The payout was $90 for 3 places. I'm wondering what the 1st place guy got and the last place guy, if I only got $15? $70/$15/$5??? Curious.

Well, it ain't about the jack anyway, it's about the competition. It was fun and I felt great, even tho the suffering was intense. Need to get in shape and pick up that extra 3 seconds! No DC reward for second place. El Guapo

Capital City Criterium

After several days of rain and no time on the bike it was time to RIDE and not just RIDE but RACE. Glenn and I were up to the challenge of the good and bad roads of Lincoln near the State Capital. The .7 mile U shaped course has eight turns and a false flat straight that can make it a challenge. Lucky for us the wind was out of the Southeast so it was a tail wind up the long slightly uphill straight.

Had a much better start this year and was able to clip in with no problems. Last year could not get clipped in and had to catch up to the group. This year passed a few people before the first turn, and got ready for the next two turns before the fourth turn which was Glenn's nemesis last year. When you hit the fourth turn you are going from using two lanes to a single lane. If you get pinched to the outside you may be hopping a curb or tumbling thru the grass median. Glen was unlucky last year but made it thru fine this year. By the time we had hit the next corner a split had formed in the large pack. Having done some Crit training last year I knew the best way to make up ground was to accelerate out of the turns. Passed some people in the turns and then it was up the long straight. The last turn has a nice bump and you need to either ride right next to the curb or go outside. Found a nice line and used it the rest of the race to carry my momentum up the long straight.

Was able to hold on to the group for the next 10 minutes and then the 24 mph pace started to take a toll on my out of shape body. The group I was with got a bit smaller but I was still hanging with them. Ray kept encouraging me as I went by, "Go daddy, Go Faster" I wish I could have gone faster but I just did not have it today. Had to drop my pace down to between 18-22 the rest of the race and made sure I got out of the way when the lead pack went by. Lucky for me they caught me at the tight turn so I slowed to stay out of their way and lost touch with the group. Glenn went by me at some point, I had anticipated this so it was not a surprise. I kept riding and hung on to the finish, pushing it up the final straight to make sure I was not passed by anyone else.

When the results were posted they were not correct. A rider was listed twice, my number was listed as someone else(my name is now Chris B), Glenn was listed as 6th not sure if that was correct. After some of this was pointed out it looked like I was given the wrong number and who knows what else may have been missed. Even with the incorrect results I still had fun and was glad I could represent the team. I was not first but I was not last either, so my goal for the year is still intact. Looking forward to my next Crit later this year, got good experience from this one that I can use in the next one. Tomorrow I get to watch Pete hammer it out at Pioneers Park, have a feeling he will do better than I did today. GO TEAM!!!

Velo Veloce Member Wins Holiday Lake Triathlon

Velo Veloce club member Carol Smolsky had a great race at the Holiday Lake Triathlon in Brooklyn, Iowa, last Saturday, winning the female division. Carol said the conditions were tough. Race officials changed the course at the last minute due to heavy rains the day before. She said that it rained during the bike portion and that it was cold throughout the event (48 degrees).

Also, Carol says she has a friend who's an awesome swimmer (winning meets at the national level) who's looking for a team for the Pigman Long Course Triathlon (half Ironman distance) on August 21st in Palo, Iowa (Cedar Rapids area). She needs a biker and a runner. The bike portion would be 64 miles of beautiful Iowa countryside and the run would be 13.1 miles. Go to PigmanTri.com for more info on the race. Contact Carol at LoveYouCakes@gmail.com if you're interested, and she'll forward your info on to her friend.

Velo Veloce Community Service

A very big “Thank You” to all of the Velo Veloce’s who contributed their time Sunday with one of our community efforts. This is our 2nd year participating with the Nebraska Department of Road’s “Adopt a Highway” program. “Our highway” is the highly cycle traveled section of Hwy 36, just west of 72nd Street. This community effort provides a very positive image with the community and further promotes cycling on our area roads.

Following this day of watching Randy pick trash with a very unusual apparatus, we had an inaugural 40-mile ride with the newest “Velo Kits”.

Note the perfect Peloton

More racing and rides are approaching. If you have any friends that may share these similar interests, send them to Velo Veloce, the coolest group of riders on the planet!

My sibling Katy Ramos and I meet post-race to swap stories. Her 1st half marathon, my second. Fun when it was done.


So, I did my best to reach my pre-race goals. I had hoped for Top Ten finish in my age group and to run less than 1:40. I ran my fastest half to date by far, but fell just short of the top ten. RATS! No Diet Coke reward at the end for that. Here are the final stats:

7:05 per mile
168 out of 7221 Overall
141 out of 2414 Males
11 out of 162 Males in the M50 Age Group

I saw fellow Veloers Ben and Jono there. Here's my report:

Started by spending the night at Katies. We got up around 5 AM and did some oat meal with blueberries. Good pre-race food. Parked near campus and pedaled to stadium on my old $20 beater Giant mountain bike. Forgot my lock, but bungeed it to the fence and it was still there when I got back. Dropped off my race bag then got to start line just in time for the opening gun. I happened to stumble in next to the 1:35 pace group which was great. Hooked up the Ipod and away we went. Stayed right in front of them, although I felt like I could have gone faster. Determined to stay with my wingmen rather than go too fast and explode later. But after 7 miles, I found a policeman Jason running a wee bit faster. Got behind him for several miles. I saw one geezer up ahead that looked to be in my age group, got behind him. I lost contact with him with about a 1/2 mile to go. Had I stayed on him and passed him, I may have finished in Top Ten for my age group. Still, when I came into the football stadium and saw time clock at 1:33 something, knew I had run pretty fast. Ended up officially at 1:32.47, but in 11th. Booo. Hiss. Flopped. Still pretty sore today, especially going down stairs. Kind of looking forward to running this one again next year. Maybe go out a little faster and get under 1:30?? Some old goat from western Nebraska in my age group ran 1:21. Amazing. Time for me to switch to Ironman mode with the 70.3 Boulder Ironman looming next.