Memorial Day Weekend in Iowa

This past weekend I spent the Memorial Day weekend with my parents and team racing in Iowa at the Quad Cities. This is a very famous and historic weekend of racing in some very cool downtown areas. My parents and I left early friday morning so that we could stop and eat lunch with my grandparents who live in Illinois. I don't get to see them that often so when I do it is a treat. I loved being able to see them! After eating lunch, we finished up our last hour of driving and made our way to the hotel. The night was finished off with a great Italian dinner and going to bed at a good time.
My first race was early Saturday morning in the downtown of Burlington. This weekend I decided to just do the junior 15-18 races since these races are more important and attract a lot of junior talent. We had to do eight laps where each lap consisted of a really steep and twisty cobbled climb followed by a really fast decent. The name of the Race is Snake Alley. The climb really does look like a snake. Here is a video of last year's race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0InwFypMe-c . I was not able to stay with the front group of racers last year, so my goal was to stay at the front this year. The race started off really fast, but I was able to hold my position and fight hard. On the last lap I went to the front and drilled it up the climb hoping that I could help pace my teammates up and stop attacks. I got to the top and everyone passed me. I reached the bottom of the descent and picked off a racer in the sprint to place tenth out of over 50 juniors. After the race I overheated and threw up though. Something has been going on with my body lately and I am not sure what. Hopefully I can get that figured out soon.

Sunday was the Melon City Criterium. I will save you all time on this race because my chain got caught in my frame on the first lap and by the time I got it fixed the field was already over a minute up the road. I chased for a couple laps, but then I gave up.

Monday's race was the Quad Cities Criterium which consisted of 14 laps of a big figure eight shaped loop with a lot of corners. Last year I got 4th in this race so I had some confidence. After not feeling great on Saturday and dropping out on Sunday I really wasn't sure what was going to happen though. I attacked right when the race started and I soon opened up a decent sized gap on everyone else. I knew that I had 14 laps to go so I had to pace myself. 2 laps into the race it started to rain really hard and I startes slipping around in the corners. I figured that there would be a lot of crashes in the field and I was right. With 4 laps to go I was 15 seconds ahead of a group of 20 chasers. I realized that I had a chance of winning. I still had a small gap when I crossed the line with 1 lap to go and I put the hammer down. The field came 10 feet away from catching me in the end, but I held them off by myself and crossed the line in first. It was a great feeling!

I had such a great time this weekend and I would like to thank my teammates for helping me out and being such great friends to me. My team also did really well over the weekend and I am so happy for them. Every single person on Prochain cycling gave it their all in every single race. I would also like to thank my coach Lucas Wall for all of his advice and dealing with all the crap that comes with training a teenager. I know that I'm not the perfect athlete to coach, but he somehow manages to always be able to make me improve on my love of this sport. I would like to thank my family for always supporting me and cheering me on. I would like to thank Honey Stinger for all of their great nutritional products and Enzo's Cycling for their chamois creme. I don't know what I would do without the great sponsor's that I have. Finally, I would like to thank my parents. They are the best in the world and they are always so proud of me. It is their 19th anniversary today and I love them so much. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!