So the Intelligenstsia cup started this weekend...10 days of racing around Chicago. Pretty big series overall.

One of th Frits is only 7 miles from my house and I can literally ride dead straight onto the course from the bike path behind my house without making a single turn. So I decided to renew my license and jump in. Talked my buddy into doing the 50+ 1-4 with me and was also going to do the 35+ 3/4 race with a couple other guys I ride with regularly.

Roads were really wet this AM and the 3/4 race was @ 11:15. Still on blood thinners so a technical L-shaped Crit with narrow off-camber turns on wet roads was not in the cards....but it dried out (enough) in time that I tied the line. Raced well, stayed in the top 10-20 the whole race. Took me at least 1/2 the race to feel like I could corner even half-decently, but I held my own. Knowing I would not contest the sprint, I made a move with 3 to go but got reeled in a lap later. Went to the back of the group and coasted in for 19th.

Thurlow Rogers showed up for the 50+ race and it was a smaller field so I was dreading it. Hunter East was also there was defending champ. About 4 or 5 laps in, they ring the bell for a $50 prime. Halfway through the lap and guys are slowing down..WTF? I snake through the field and attack into a corner. Get a gap and out my head down. Come out of the last turn and I had a HUGE gap and easily take the prime. Was going to sit up when a buddy yells from the sideline “might as well keep going!” Fook...OK. Put my head down and hope my buddy and some others are blocking behind. Stay out for another 3 laps and get released in. Thurlow counters in the left side and my buddy jumps on his wheel with Hunter. BOOM goes the dynamite...race over, there is the break.

I start riding wheels with the Intelligensia guys to let them get away. About halfway through the race, I am getting tired. Gaps open when the pack surges, but I keep clawing back. With 8 to go, they give us a prime for Omnium points, 5 deep. I get gapped again coming out of the last turn and spend the next lap trying to close down a 20m gap.

With 4 to go, some kid drops his mini-basketball in his driveway and it rolls into the street right in front of us. Guys swerving all over the place but the guy in front of me hits it and dumps it right in front of me. Jam on the brakes HARD and I somehow barely manage to keep it up, but I am I unclipped now, sideways and at a dead stop. Free laps of course end at 5 to go. I head over to the pit anyway but no luck. I roll around to finish my race instead if getting a DNF.

Up front, my buddy takes 2nd in the sprint behind Hunter and ahead of Thurlow., but he was the first 50+ guy across the line, so he also got the 50-54 leaders jersey.

All in all, a damn good day...god damn I missed bike racing!!