TOAD pt. 1

This past week I've been spending some quality time in Wisconsin at the Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD). Today (Monday) is a rest day, which is another fancy way of saying this first year event couldn't find a venue for today. Not that anyone is complaining, as racing for four solid days straight is a little tiring. My first two days of TOAD had been particularly rough. Thursday, the first day of the series went out to Blue Mound Park, which is the highest point in that region of Wisconsin, and the course proposed for the Chicago 2016 Olympics. We got out there on Wednesday to a hotel that looks like it hadn't been renovated or cleaned since the 1970's. We checked out the road course on Wednesday and it was really really hard. Two climbs on the back side of the course of a mile at about 20% grade and the final climb went 3 miles at 9-12%. Unluckily I didn't really get to race the course. Fourteen miles into the first lap the field crested a hill and made a left turn, after which I glanced back to check out the situation with the rest of the pack. When I turned my head back around my front wheel was in another guys rear derailleur, the valve stem caught on his derailleur cable, sheering clean off. My front went flat and I lost control really quickly, hitting the ground in a spread eagle position. My race was over at that point, I could have kept going and been in excruciating pain for the next three hours, but I decided against it. I got a ride back in the SRAM neutral car, after a minute I realized both my knees were producing a good amount of blood, I asked the mechanic driving if he had anything I could use to keep from getting blood all over his car. He turned around and gave me a handful of McDonald's napkins, the perfect gauze pads. And that was the end of my day, I'm not too worried about it, I'll have another shot at the course in 7 years.

Friday was a 1.6 mile circuit in Waterloo, the home of my most favorite bicycle manufacturer: TREK. The course was pretty cool, two long straights, with a twisty narrow road and climb on the back side of the course. The race went out pretty hard. We all got up to the front at the end and things were looking pretty good. I got caught up in a crash in the last lap that was just like a bunch of domino's falling over. The good part about it was that I landed on a guy slid to a stop on top of him, never touching the ground. The bad part was that when the guy slammed into me he jacked up my bike frame in two places. We did have a couple place in the money.

Saturday was Grafton. At the end of the race we were all pretty bummed about being pack fodder.

Yesterday went a little better we all took a big part in the race. Following moves, going for primes and jockeying for the finish. There was a lot of swarming at the finish I got caught on the outside, that and I'm not quite confidant enough to physically push a guy off a wheel so I got passed. Fortunately Ryan and Derek both got around on the inside and finished inside the top ten.

Anyway today's the rest day, we have a lot of exciting events planned. Most importantly we're touring a brewery here in Milwaukee. It's pretty famous, maybe you've heard of it: Miller.